This year, as the stock prices of robotics stocks have soared, securities firms are locking down on speculative transactions to prevent 'debt investment.' Experts noted that while it is positive that leading global robotics corporations are making moves to capture the market earlier this year and are mentioned as stocks benefiting from Trump, commercialization may be delayed compared to expectations.
According to the financial investment industry on the 10th, KB Securities has raised the deposit margin for margin trading on Rainbow Robotics from the existing 40% to 100% starting today. This means that investors can no longer use margin for ultra-short-term transactions and must purchase stocks with 100% cash.
Shinhan Investment Corporation also designated JUNJIN Construction Robot and ROBOTIS as non-creditable items on the same day following the delivery of the gantry robot automation system to Hyundai Motor and Kia by SP Systems on the 7th. MERITZ Securities raised the margin rate for intelligent robotics service company CLOBOT from 50% to 100% on the 6th of this month due to increased stock price volatility.
In relation to robotics stocks, there has been attention on the outlook that demand for robots is expected to rise as manufacturing corporations in the U.S. actively introduce automation equipment following the global supply chain reorganization pushed by U.S. President Donald Trump at the beginning of the year. OpenAI applied for a trademark related to humanoid robots with the Korean Intellectual Property Office at the end of last month, and Tesla plans to produce at least 10,000 units of its self-developed robot 'Optimus' by the end of this year for factory deployment.
In South Korea, Samsung Electronics established a 'Future Robotics Promotion Team' directly under the CEO at the end of last year to develop humanoid robots. Hyundai Motor Group plans to deploy the humanoid robot 'Atlas' from Boston Dynamics in its automotive production plants this year to proceed with the commercialization of robotics.
In fact, so far this year (from Jan. 2 to Feb. 7), six robotics stocks have ranked among the top 10 in KOSPI and KOSDAQ's rate of increase. The top position is held by HIGEN RNM, which rose by 199.6%. Following that are Rainbow Robotics (152.3%), Korea Movenex (146.9%), SP Systems (126.4%), Koh Young Technology (123.4%), and CLOBOT (114.4%).
On that day, Rainbow Robotics saw a decline of about 8% compared to the previous trading day, entering a period of consolidation, but generally, robotics stocks showed an upward trend, including Yujin Robot (15.7%), Korea Movenex (11.1%), SP Systems (6.1%), and JUNJIN Construction Robot (4.8%).
With the surge in robotics stock prices, there has been an increase in margin investing as individuals bet on further rises, leading to a sharp increase in margin balances. As of the 7th of this month, Rainbow Robotics had a margin balance of 63.2 billion won, which increased by 32.6 billion won (51.6%) this year alone. CLOBOT's margin balance rose by 7.4 billion won (67.1%) to 11 billion won, while Korea Movenex and SP Systems increased their margins by 1.7 billion won (28.3%) and 500 million won (21.2%) to 6.1 billion won and 2.5 billion won, respectively.
If stock prices continue to rise, there is no issue, but if stock prices drop in the future and individual investors are unable to repay borrowed money on time, securities firms will inevitably bear the losses. Thus, securities firms are seen to be suppressing margin investing to reduce this unsettled risk.
Some point out that the stock prices have overheated. In the case of HIGEN RNM, it was designated as a high-risk investment stock on the 5th, and trading was halted for a day.
Yang Seung-yun, a researcher at Eugene Securities, said, "Expectations for technologies such as humanoids are rising, but the actual demand for robots that are commercialized and sold is continuing to show uncertainty, expanding the gap between expectations and reality. It should be noted that the actual demand for currently commercialized collaborative robots is weaker than originally anticipated in the market outlook."